Follow-up to the Symposium on the role and management of telecommunications in a democratic society

Order 347 (1975)

Author(s):

Parliamentary Assembly

Origin

Assembly debate on 23 January 1975 (18th Sitting) (seeDoc. 3520, report of the Committee on Culture and Education). Text adopted by the Assembly on 23 January 1975 (19th Sitting).

The Assembly,

1. Considering the Symposium in Munich on the role and management of telecommunications in a democratic society ;

2. Noting the Recommendations 748 (1975) and 749 (1975) and Resolution 584 (1975) adopted as a result ;

3. Recalling its Order No. 341 (1973), in which the Committee on Culture and Education was instructed to examine a radio and television "model" best suited to guarantee freedom of expression, and wishing to extend this to all mass media, including in particular the written press ;

4. Recognising the importance of a general European policy on communications which is long overdue ;

5. Believing also in the value of continuing debate on several aspects of the general question on a European level, and between parliamentarians and professionals involved in broadcasting,

6. Instructs its Committee on Culture and Education to hold further meetings between parliamentarians and experts, in order to :

a make a study of the ways in which viewers' and listeners' associations, and other means in which viewers and listeners are represented, have been established and developed in member states, and to consider whether there is a need for a structure for their closer co-operation at a European level ;

b continue the investigation of a "model" for the mass media best suited to guaranteeing freedom of expression, and which might be considered as a starting point for the establishment of a general European policy on communications ;

c provide a forum for debating other aspects of the subject, and in particular :

the statutory rights of producers and the mechanics of their accountability ;

a general employment policy for all those concerned with broadcasting ;

the financial aspects of broadcasting ;

the quality of broadcasting (morality, violence and sex ; excessive information content ; commercial and cultural pollution) ;

the political implications of free broadcasting in Europe, with reference to the Conference on Security and Co-operation in Europe.